Claude Littner clarifies tribute after baffling fans over announcing death of candidate who died 11 years ago
Claude Littner sparked confusion amongst The Apprentice fans on Wednesday (08.04.26) after he called former candidate Stuart Baggs' death "sad news" - 11 years after the star died - and has now explained the post was in response to Lord Alan Sugar's tribute the day before.
Claude Littner has clarified his tribute to Stuart Baggs after he baffled fans by announcing the death of the 2010 Apprentice candidate 11 years later.
The businessman, 76, took to X on Wednesday (08.04.26) saying it was "sad news" about the passing of the "brilliant" telecommunications specialist - who died a week after his 27th birthday in July 2015, from an asthma attack.
Claude also recalled Stuart being a "memorable interviewee" and being "stunned" when the entrepreneur claimed he was "a brand" during the brutal interviews challenge - the penultimate stage of the BBC reality TV show.
Fans rushed to the comments section of the post to point out that the BlueWave Communications founder died 11 years ago, and Claude later said the upload "was tagging on to Lord Sugar's reminder of my interview with Stuart, with the current interviews being screened 9pm tomorrow".
However, some users rejected Claude's response, as one person penned: "You said it was 'news' but it was news 11 years ago."
On Tuesday (07.04.26), The Apprentice boss Lord Alan Sugar, 79, took to Instagram and posted a clip of his ex-aide Claude scrutinising Stuart's plan for investment into his broadband firm, BlueWave Communications, during the interviews stage.
He captioned the upload: "Whenever it comes to Interviews week, my mind goes back to the dear departed Stuart Baggs - RIP. Such a great character on #TheApprentice (sic)."
Claude paid tribute to Stuart at the time of his death in July 2015.
He penned on X: "So very sorry to hear of the passing of Stuart Baggs. He was a decent and ambitious young man. Really sad by his untimely death. RIP."
During the interviews stage of The Apprentice, Stuart claimed on his CV that he was a fully licensed telecoms operator on the Isle of Man, but this was disproven by interviewee Bordan Tkachuk.
Stuart added that he only had an ISP license for broadband internet.
Lord Sugar did not like what he heard about Stuart's performance during the interviews, and the Amstrad founder then fired him.
At the time, Stuart was the youngest candidate on The Apprentice, and he first stepped into the business world by selling yo-yos to his fellow pupils in the school playground.
On Thursday (09.04.26), The Apprentice 2026's final five, Dan Miller, Karishma Vijay, Lawrence Rosenberg, Pascha Myhill and Priyesh Bathia will have their business plans scrutinised in the interviews.
